THE BRIHANMUMBAI Municipal Corporation on Friday filed a notice of motion before the Bombay High Court to vacate the interim relief on demolition granted to over 50 stall owners on Fashion Street in South Mumbai. The High Court has directed the stall owners to file a reply to the motion, while the stay against coercive action will remain till the next hearing on June 8.

On May 20, the BMC had directed the owners of over 50 shops to evict the stalls within 24 hours, failing which they would have to face demolition.

The shop owners had then approached the high court that issued an interim relief on Tuesday restraining the BMC against taking any coercive action.

Appearing on behalf of the BMC, senior counsel Anil Sakhre presented an inspection report in the court based on a site visit claiming violation of license norms by stall owners. He also presented evidence of notices issued to the stall owners since January 2017 asking them to rectify the violations.

The BMC had cancelled the licences of the shopkeepers under Section 313 (B) of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act, 1888.

The civic body claimed that it was done due to violation of three licence norms – the person in whose name the licence has been issued being absent from the shop, bamboo scaffolding and iron rods of the shops obstructing movement of pedestrians and shops selling commodities other than those they have been issued a licence for.

The stall owners had submitted before the high court that they had not received the due notice for demolition by the BMC.